I agree that regardless of the theoretical advantages of the Sony/Monolta hotshoe, Sony should have dumped it and reverted to the standard ISO arrangement when they took the brand over. I use the Sony Adapter which is OK, but its a kludgy solution. Unfortunately I suspect we are stuck with it

Quentin

Logged

Quentin Bargate, ARPS, Author, photographer entrepreneur and senior partner of Bargate Murray, Law Firm of the Year 2013

I agree that regardless of the theoretical advantages of the Sony/Monolta hotshoe, Sony should have dumped it and reverted to the standard ISO arrangement when they took the brand over. I use the Sony Adapter which is OK, but its a kludgy solution. Unfortunately I suspect we are stuck with it

Quentin

I agree that we are stuck with this "superior" hotshoe and also agree that Sony should have dumped it when they took the mount over. I am assuming that some of the decision makers at the time of the takeover were former KM employees, and thus did not allow much daylight to shine on this aspect.

So you'd rather have the vast majority of Sony's user-base be forced to use a poor solution just so that you won't need to buy adapters? I think Sony is smart enough to weigh the benefits to their various user sectors. In short, the Minolta-type shoe isn't going away any time soon.

No, they will simply get used to the "poor solution" that is in use by every other dSLR manufacturer on this planet, accounting for over 95% of the base of dSLR users. They will be able to use their current flashes, as long as Sony provides an adapter to make it work.

After all, if Sony depends on the tiny slice of former Minolta/KM users to move their business forward, it will be a sure-fire recipe for disaster and oblivion. Sony's move forward is dependent on getting NEWER users into the fold (including people like myself who had no such KM/Minolta background), who in turn would not form the NEW "vast majority of Sony's user base". Even if I have to buy an adapter for my current F58s and F20, I would still advocate Sony dumping this "superior" hotshoe design and moving to the design used by everyone else.

No, they will simply get used to the "poor solution" that is in use by every other dSLR manufacturer on this planet, accounting for over 95% of the base of dSLR users.

You could say the same about M42 screw mount when it was the most common method of attaching lenses to cameras. Luckily, all camera brands saw the light and switched to far superior bayonet mounts. Too bad they each chose a proprietary option, but this is very much the case with their current hot-shoes. After all, other than the physical shoe, the electrical contacts layout and protocol are all proprietary, which means that the devices most users care about ("smart" flash units) are not interchangeable anyway. For the few who need to connect other devices there are plenty of solutions - with or without adapters. For example, studio lighting and triggers can be connected to the camera PC sync socket (available on all Sony DSLR which are likely to be used with such gear). Spirit levels are available for Minolta-type shoe. This is all much ado about nothing.

Quote

After all, if Sony depends on the tiny slice of former Minolta/KM users to move their business forward, it will be a sure-fire recipe for disaster and oblivion.

I don't think Sony cares so much about current Minolta users, as they're selling a lot more cameras than Minolta ever did. The number of people still using Minolta's 6MP DSLR (many with first-black-frame issues) must be negligible compared to the numbers Sony has sold since acquiring Minolta's camera business. Sony just had the IP rights to a better hot-shoe, so they did the right thing and used it, to the joy of most alpha-mount users.

Quote

Sony's move forward is dependent on getting NEWER users into the fold (including people like myself who had no such KM/Minolta background), who in turn would not form the NEW "vast majority of Sony's user base".

The vast majority of Sony's user base doesn't include people who care about professional studio gear, and the few who do can use $7 adapters.

Quote

Even if I have to buy an adapter for my current F58s and F20, I would still advocate Sony dumping this "superior" hotshoe design and moving to the design used by everyone else.

Feel free to advocate, but don't expect Sony to throw away the usability, speed and security advantages of the new shoe for the sake of a few grumpy pros who are so hooked about the 1913 ISO kludge. It's not going to happen.